Florida Judge Listens to Proposals for Dismissing Charges Against Trump Documents

A Florida judge conducted hearings on Wednesday regarding the requests made by former president Donald Trump and his co-defendants to dismiss the charges they are facing for mishandling classified documents.

The hearings took place in Fort Pierce, Florida, in front of District Judge Aileen Cannon, who has indefinitely postponed Trump’s criminal trial in the matter.

Trump, along with his co-defendants – his valet Walt Nauta and Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira – have submitted multiple motions seeking to dismiss the case.

In June, Trump pleaded not guilty in Florida to federal charges including unlawfully retaining national defense information, conspiracy to obstruct justice, and making false statements.

It was alleged in the indictment that he kept the classified files, containing records from the Pentagon, CIA, and National Security Agency, unsecured at his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida and impeded official efforts to retrieve them.

Trump, who is currently facing trial in New York in a separate case involving falsifying business records to pay hush money to a porn star, did not attend the proceedings on Wednesday.

Judge Cannon, a Trump appointee, first heard a motion from Nauta claiming that his prosecution was “vindictive” due to his refusal to cooperate with the investigation into Trump.

She did not make an immediate ruling on the motion or on a second dismissal motion filed on behalf of all three defendants, as previous dismissal motions have been rejected.

These hearings on Wednesday marked the first since Cannon postponed the trial of the former president indefinitely on May 7, which was originally supposed to start this month on May 20.

Cannon cited the number of pre-trial motions as the reason for the postponement and it has become unlikely that the case will be heard before the upcoming presidential election, which is less than six months away.

Trump’s legal team has been trying to delay his various criminal cases until after the election.

Aside from the cases in New York and Florida, Trump is also facing charges in Washington and Georgia related to his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which was won by Democrat Joe Biden, his likely opponent in November.